Secrets
by MeredithBrody
Summary: Meredith Brody is forced to talk about her former teammates.


_So, this is a bit of a weird one. I was listening to this song tonight and I couldn't resist writing this. There is implied sex in the last section, but nothing graphic (hence why I categorised this the way I did). I'm not really sure when I'm going to get back to my other ongoing works but I promise they are all on their way! The end of the year this year has been so busy! Anyway, the title and lyrics are from the song "Come On, Get Higher" by Matt Nathanson. Please read and review._  
 _Shin xx_

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 _ **I've got more secrets than you'll ever know**_  
 _ **Another year and you won't let it go**_  
 _ **Too many times I told myself to hold on**_  
 _ **But it's too late for me**_  
 _ **I'm as good as gone**_

Brody had left New Orleans by choice, though it wasn't really a choice. It was made clear to her that NCIS wouldn't support her remaining there. Now she was in the main offices in DC being asked questions that were, frankly, making her uncomfortable. None as much as the question about her friends, the people she'd worked with every day for the last two and a bit years. "You want me to tell you about my former team."

"Yes. Their foibles, their ticks. What it is that makes them work?" Well, wasn't that an interesting question. Really, Merri didn't know much about that. All she knew was what she felt had made them work as a team. That had always been the more important thing to her, and she wanted so much from it.

"Why should I tell you that?" Telling them about her friends was the last thing that she was likely to do. She wanted to protect them from people like this. It was not going to be how she led to their downfall. It was bad enough she wasn't allowed to go and help them.

"Brody, just do it." The male agent had been the more pressing one throughout all of this, so she wondered why he suddenly changed track. That was the problem when an interrogator was being interrogated. They just wondered about the routine and habits of the other interrogator, and we're rarely phased by the questions.

"I've got more secrets than I'll ever tell you, I'm holding my tongue even if you've forced me to leave." The secrets in Merri's mind went far beyond what the average agent had, that was part of her history, and she was going to keep them there as best she could. Nobody else needed to hear them, and she could preparers them and she didn't need to think about them.

"Just tell us about them." There it was, the more snappy reply. Merri felt a little better knowing that the male was still more easily angered by her half-answers and her outright refusals. It probably wasn't ever going to help her, but right now she didn't care. Though if they just wanted to know about her team, she'd talk about what she thought about them.

 _ **Turns out I don't go down that easily**_  
 _ **You'll never really know what this means to me**_  
 _ **And no it wasn't ever too much to hold**_  
 _ **But you stole your own self-control**_

"You want to know about my team? Alright. I'll tell you." She took a deep breath and was glad that neither agent decided to try and push her along. She needed to try and figure out how she was going to do this, and what she was going to say about each of the people she loved.

"Dwayne Pride is a superior agent. Unorthodox, intelligent, compassionate." Listing off the things that had caused her to like and respect him, and whatever else there was in her mind about Pride. That was a question that needed to be answered, sure, but not here. Here it needed to be in the back of her mind. "He may skirt with the line, but he doesn't cross it." That took her on to the next person in their hierarchy.

"Chris LaSalle… Well, the man may be a hot mess, but as an agent and a partner he's one of the best I've ever worked with." Her former partner had been great. He was like the baby brother that she'd never been given, and she teased him as such. While she joked that he was a mess, he was learning to be a better person and a more adult human being.

"Sonja Percy may be a pain in the ass, and don't get me wrong she is." Though they'd only worked together for a year, Merri had a huge amount of respect for Sonja Percy and she was a fantastic agent. She always stood for what she believed was right, and that was special for Merri. "But she knows more about the real world than most senior agents. She is more likely to be able to tell you when a situation is going south than anyone." At that, she fell silent and just stared at the agents until one of them spoke.

"Patton Plame, Triple P… King saved him, and he's stayed on the straight and narrow ever since." Merri maybe knew more about Patton history than some others, largely because she'd stayed late with the two of them more than anyone else. She wasn't going to talk about anything she knew about Patton without him saying she could. "He's the greatest computer tech, and despite his fondness for slang he's the most intelligent and wise man."

"What about doctors Wade and Lund?" The woman ended up being the one to break the silence, and Merri just turned and fixed her a with a withering stare. She wasn't really in the mood to bring all of this backup, but this was going to be the only way that she was ever given a break. "They are also on your team, aren't they?"

"Well, Loretta Wade is a wonderful woman. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you about her work, so I'll tell you about the woman I know." Merri knew that Loretta was unparalleled in the work that she did, and Merri also knew that as a human being, Loretta was really the most amazing person on the planet. "She is kind and honest, she just wants to make sure that we're all being treated properly."

"Sebastian Lund. Amazing forensic tech, loyal to a fault, possibly one of the greatest friends I will ever have." Merri had trusted Sebastian when she hadn't been sure she could trust anyone, and she was sure that he would have done the same for her one day if she'd needed it. "A bit of a windbag, but I love him. He's my little brother."

Pausing a little she thought of everything she'd said, and all the things they'd probably really wanted to hear. "You wanted me to tattle on them, try to implicate them to get myself a lighter judgement, maybe?" She didn't care what people thought of her, she did care what people thought about her friends. "That was never going to happen."

"You don't understand those people… they didn't just save my life, they gave me a life. You don't know how much they mean to me." It wasn't a past tense thing, she still cared more about them than anyone else in her life. She would never do anything that would put them in danger. "I will protect them with my life."

 _ **Not everybody wants an enemy**_  
 _ **Call me the culprit and that's all you'll see**_  
 _ **You were responsible for finding a way to catch up**_  
 _ **But it's too late for me**_  
 _ **I'm as good as gone**_

"You are supposed to be telling me the truth, Agent Brody." The female agent spoke again, trying to sound steely but not really succeeding. Merri had the ability to just glare at someone until they shut up, but right now she was just too angry that they were clearly fishing for something and she wasn't giving it to them.

"You want the truth? That's what I just gave you. I told you the truth." She really did. That was all about her perceptions, and that was the important part. "You broke up the best team you had, and now you have to live with that. I'm not helping you find more reasons to ruin what they have there."

"Brody, you were the reason things got to where they were." The male agent pressed, and that was the moment she just rolled her eyes. Were they really going to try and make her out to be the criminal in this situation? Even though their own investigations had cleared her now. More than once.

"If that's what you want to believe then you do that, but we know it's not true." Merri was, actually, used to people blaming her. It had been happening for as long as she'd been able to talk. She knew that that was what they saw when it was their decision. She knew better. "If you blame me that's all you'll think, but if you were honest about it NCIS and Homeland would have figured John Russo out long before I was in the position you all put me in." That was something she felt she should keep pushing. She'd been pushed into that situation, it hadn't been a choice.

"We're never going to reassign you there." The woman said, closing her file, and that crystallised that, to NCIS, this was a witch hunt. They were just looking for reasons to stop the New Orleans team for working together. Merri would do anything, at all, that she could do to make sure that they were allowed to work in their way.

"It's alright. I'll find another job, even if it's just tending bar." "I'm out of here." Merri stood up and shook her head, she had been there voluntarily and now she didn't want to be there anymore. She wanted to go home, and in doing so she went upstairs and left her gun, badge and creds on Gibbs' desk, knowing that he would get them to the director when he saw them. She was done. There were more important things in her life.


End file.
